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Def Leppard Tour History Fan Archive.
Joe Elliott Explains Vivian Campbell's Stem Cell Surgery/Health Issues

Friday, 12th September 2014





Vivian Campbell Sheffield 2008.
Pic by dltourhistory

Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott was interviewed yesterday and talked in great detail about Vivian Campbell's health issues and upcoming surgery.

Joe talked to KX92 about the Down 'n' Outz, the Summer Tour 2014 with KISS, Vivian's health and the intro to Rock Of Ages (Gunter Gleiben Glouten Globen).

Joe talked to KFAB-AM about the Down 'n' Outz, the next studio album, Vivian's health, the NFL show and touring in 2015.

Joe said Vivian will undergo his Stem Cell surgery in a week or ten days time. This will rule him out of action from the band until at least Christmas. Therefore he will not take part in the next album sessions and miss the NFL show and the shows in Las Vegas, Santa Ynez, Rancho Mirage and Temecula.

Vivian celebrated his 52nd birthday on 25th August and married his girlfriend Caitlin during the recent US tour.

Listen to one interview below and the second (2 part/30min) one via the link.

KX92/KFAB-AM - Joe Elliott 11th Sep Radio Interview Quotes

Vivian Campbell's Upcoming Surgery/Health Issues

"Vivian is in remission from Hodgkin's Lymphoma you know apart from a couple of really, really tough days at the front end of the tour where he was literally coming on stage having just had chemo. He was in fantastic form. Great humour. His health just kept getting better and better you know we went on and he was more than pulling his weight for somebody that's got cancer. So there was a lot of things to deal with that could've made it a downer. But you know we always look at it as the glass is always half full it's not half empty."

"Now the tour's over Viv's gonna go for Stem Cell surgery which takes him out of action for a few months. But he'll be back in time for us to go out next year when we do our world tour for the new record."

"Well it always is it doesn't matter whether it's Vivian or your next door neighbour. It's a bastard of a disease it really is you know. And it's just hit and miss you know. I mean Vivian had this last year, went into remission and we all thought he was fine and then he went for some more tests and it came back. So the news that was spread out last year was a little - you know it was a little kind of too soon really. But now he's like I'm back in remission but I'm not gonna go completely gung ho thinking I'm cured or it's gone away because it's not you know. remission just means the tumour is smaller than it was. Now he's gotta go in there and have the whole thing blitzed and he. He was very smart cause he said look you know - we were suggesting you could stay at home for the summer you know get well - and he's like no if you want to kill me then don't give me something I can't focus on. You know, I have to have a focus. I need to do this."

"So we were like OK look as long as you're not gonna keel over and die on us cause we don't want the - it's a tough life travelling and playing and to do that with cancer you've got to think well that's just gotta make it twice as hard. And he's like no I need it it's - for me it's mental. And it was for him it was a mental issue he needed to get over. And he said I don't want this to be something that you know stops me doing stuff. It's not gonna kill me and we were like OK because you've gotta be supportive of your buddy in those situations. So he knows best. I don't know what it's like to have cancer and make that decision all I can do is try and support what he thinks is the right thing to do. Turns out other than a couple of days where he was in a real bad way it went great. And we all have bad days but he had a much more genuine excuse for a bad day than most of us. Most of us it's just cause you've just had a row with your bank manager, his is cancer. So that's like OK that's cool. That's not a problem you know."

"But now he's got through it. Now he really can focus on this because fortunately we are nearly more than halfway through a new record. But we were missing some bits of Viv. And we recorded him on the road. You know we got him doing singing and guitar solos and backing vocals and all sorts of mad stuff. And we did it on days off so we really, really were busy this summer. If we weren't playing with KISS we were recording on the new album so when we get back together to start mixing and finishing this thing off all the bits that Viv hadn't done he's done. So he can go get well with his focus purely and 100 percent on his health and not worry about the record. Which is gonna be good for him because I think he will - this whole summer they weren't trying to make him better they were trying to keep him in a kind of a cycle that would allow him to do the tour. They were just holding off the cancer."

"Now what they're gonna go in there is they're gonna go in and they're gonna go kill it. Which they wouldn't have been able to do while he was on tour. So you know the doctors are quite clever they know how to do this. And it looks like you know fingers crossed and thumbs up that he's gonna be fine. But obviously there's a lot of work to do so we can't take anything for granted but he has to go away now and he has to spend quite a lot of time in hospital having all this stuff done. And then he has to be protected from germs so he's gotta be the boy in the bubble for a couple of months. But it's worth it if it keeps him alive for another 30 years."

"But with a new album coming out it could be a completely different plan next year. We've got to finish the record first. We started - we did a bunch of recording in February and May. We did a little bit of stuff on the road because to be quite honest with Vivian's cancer, even though it's in remission, he's going in for stem cell surgery in a week or 10 days time and he's gonna be unavailable and incognito and wrapped up in you know basically the boy in the bubble up to maybe Christmas. You know so he can blitz this thing once and for all which means that any work that he needs to do on the record we had to make sure it was done before this happened so we had him in - on days off we had him in a hotel room with his guitar and a microphone read to do backing vocals and guitar solos and all sorts of mad stuff so that we could get on with the record when he's in hospital and the tours finished."






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